Teaching & Learning

Is it fear? Is it a case of ‘we’ll do what we’ve always done and it’ll be fine‘? Perhaps some school leaders aren’t fans of change, or even worse, they are completely oblivious to the negative impact that their approach is potentially having on teachers within their school. I want this blog to be read … Continue reading →

Professional development, professional learning, continuous professional development, personalised professional development and so on… I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard, experienced and read about many other successful and unsuccessful reincarnations of what is basically a mechanism to meet the diverse development needs of all teachers, which underpin improved progress for all students. The question I often … Continue reading →

Research has suggested that nonverbal teacher behaviors such as smiling, how we express ourselves vocally, our movement around the learning environment and the actual position of our body are extremely important, low‐inference variables of a process which leads to increased cognitive and emotive learning. There has been extensive research, hundreds of blogs written and endless … Continue reading →

As we are all too aware, turbulence and frequent changes in accountability measures are creating a culture of uncertainty in education in recent times, and here lies the inherent problem. This academic year will see yet another significant change in how the Government’s new “fairer” progress 8 accountability measure is calculated, meaning more shifting goalposts. Yes, … Continue reading →

As I begin life as a Deputy Headteacher in my new school, it is understandably a learning curve and one that I am thoroughly enjoying. Of the many facets of my new role, one significant aspect that absolutely goes hand in hand with teaching and learning is teacher wellbeing. This makes total sense, as I … Continue reading →

I consider myself to be in a very fortunate position, why? because I get to visit lessons every single day. In fact, I feel somewhat selfish and the reason is because every day I learn from my colleagues, I discover something to take away and experiment with that helps me to improve my own teaching. Obviously, leading teaching … Continue reading →

I consider myself very fortunate and extremely proud to lead teaching and learning in my role as Deputy Headteacher, however, that’s not to say that leading teaching and learning isn’t everybody’s responsibility, because it is. And herein lies many potential pitfalls and of course golden opportunities for leaders like myself to either grow a culture … Continue reading →

As I enter my final week as an Assistant Headteacher, I’ve begun to reflect upon my leadership journey, which, over the last six years has been somewhat of a ‘roller-coaster’. Inspired by a colleague who recently wrote a blog titled ‘How to be a Head of Faculty’ who interestingly, from September, will be stepping … Continue reading →

I Believe it’s time to reclaim marking and make it our own again. It’s time to establish the hard facts, analyse what the research tells us and debunk the myths. Ask any teacher across various educational contexts what is top 3 in terms of their workload burden and I predict this will always include … Continue reading →

Recently I reached out via twitter and asked the following question in the form of a poll: How effective is appraisal/PM in developing your practice in your school? Are the targets set: a) A prerequisite – imposed b) Mutually agreed c) Combination of both The purpose of this question was to try to establish a broader picture … Continue reading →